Lakewood, Colorado, is host to the third round of the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship. New to the series in 2005, it has been a welcome addition ever since. The Thunder Valley track is located at nearly six thousand feet of elevation, wreaking havoc on both man and machine. Its effects are felt right away, as even walking the track on Friday will leave you wondering about your fitness.

For some reason, I always felt the altitude more when walking around than when I was actually riding. Maybe the adrenaline takes over once you’re out there spinning laps? Anyhow, the altitude has much more dire effects on the motorcycles themselves. The first lap on the track is an eye opener, as the engines struggle without the oxygen they are accustomed to. Power is way, way down, and it takes some adjustment from both the technicians and riders. The teams will apply any extra tricks up their sleeves to add torque and horsepower, but they always have to be mindful of reliability as well.

For the riders, the bikes have to be ridden more aggressively than normal, and braking points are sometimes a bit deceiving. Another issue that has occurred over the years has been fuel boiling inside the fuel tanks. This is referred to as “vapor lock,” and causes the bike to bog unpredictably and sometimes cause fuel to be pushed out of the overflow hose. I had this happen at times over the years and ran out of fuel, causing a DNF. I don’t expect that to happen this year since the high temperature will only hover around seventy degrees, but it’s still a significant factor when heading to Colorado every year.

The track itself is actually very fun to ride. I say ride because I don’t think it’s all that fun to race on. The down-hills get very rough and tricky, as we saw with James Stewart’s big crash in 2012. The dirt base is very hard, typical for Colorado. They do haul in a massive amount of sand, which helps soften things up and add some traction where there would be none. This sand often gets blown off by the second moto, and things can get very dicey if they water the track or it rains. The Colorado hard-pack doesn’t handle water all that well once it firms up. I can remember riding the first lap of motos in Colorado and thinking it felt more like an ice-skating rink than a motocross track. Keep that in mind if and when it rains this weekend. The riders will be white-knuckled screaming down the hills in unison.

The start at Thunder Valley is unique in that many riders will use first gear for the only time all season. The loss of power makes first gear viable when it would be uncontrollable at sea level. I remember laughing every year in the first practice of the weekend, as so many riders would attempt to use second gear as normal and promptly bog or stall. Second gear can work if the gearing is changed significantly, but most will just shift down when the board goes sideways and roll the throttle on.